Lessons in Love
by hat-and-goggles
Summary: Lance likes to think he's a patient man. However, his patience is tested when a strange man consistently shows up late for his lectures. (College professor AU)


Inspired by this thread by cofie_chan on twitter: /Cofie_chan/status/1013673678641430528

* * *

Lance loved his job. He thoroughly enjoyed teaching Spanish. Not just because it's his mother tongue, but because it reminds him of home; of his family back on Cuba. He enjoyed sharing knowledge and chatting with his students in a language that was foreign to them. More often than not, he became borderline friendly with most of his students. However, his level of friendliness was being stretched to its very limit by one certain person.

Like clockwork, on the five minute mark after the start of his lecture, the door at the back of the auditorium opened. _He_ came in. Black hair, buzz cut with an unruly forelock, eyelashes that could put Bambi to shame hidden behind a snazzy pair of glasses. He was probably in his mid-twenties. Slightly older than most of his other students, Lance noted. It's not that he was unattractive, but this student's looks were no reason to let him keep on getting away with being late.

"Excuse me." Lance spoke, in English, as he addressed the student. His firm tone easily carried to the back of the auditorium.

The young man stopped dead in his tracks, gazing over at Lance and pointing at himself.

 _Good._ Lance smirked. He had him just where he wanted him. "Is there any version of this universe where you will show up for my lectures on time?"

"I-I… uh…" He stammered. Lance could see his eyes flitting around as he thought up an excuse from where he stood at the very front of the auditorium.

"Would you at least tell me your name, so I can make sure to show up five minutes late to your graduation?" Lance taunted, cocking his hip. This was so unlike him, but it felt so good to finally get out his frustration. And this wasn't too mean-spirited, was it? He was even getting some snickers from his other students.

"Takashi Shirogane." he said.

Lance quickly ran down the list of students in this class. Strange. It was nowhere to be found, even though it _did_ ring a bell with him. Maybe he was in one of his other classes. Yeah, that about sounded like it made sense.

"Alright. I'll let you get away with it one more time, but please don't be late again. Now take a seat. We were about to do a test." Lance spoke as he gave each student in the front row seats a small stack or tests to pass towards the back.

"Yes sir." He stammered before quickly taking a seat. The students around him nearly cackled with laughter. Takashi hushed them, whispering something Lance couldn't understand, but it somehow got them to quiet down to soundless snorting.

Lance didn't see what was supposed to be so damn funny, but that had to go for something. Quietly, he sat down in his desk chair and leaned back as he waited for his students to turn in their tests.

* * *

Lance grumbled as he examined the tests over his lunch break. This was not how he planned for things to go. Two months ago, he accepted an invitation to a faculty party, and he had completely forgotten that that party was tonight. It sucked now, but at least he had a fun night ahead of him.

Finally, with ten minutes of his break to go, he got to the final test. Takashi Shirogane, hm? Let's see what he's capable of. Lance carefully scanned the page, comparing it to his answer sheet, but he couldn't find any mistakes. His spelling? Perfect. His grammar? Impeccable. How was this possible? Lance would have remembered such a good student, wouldn't he?

He squinted when he noticed some scribblings in the bottom margin. What even was this handwriting? It looked much more squiggly. Nervous, even. The letters were so tiny that Lance could barely even read them.

"' _Shall I compare thee to a summer's day'_? What?!" Lance blushed a bright red as he frantically scanned the sonnet that was scribbled in the margin in its entirety, looking for some sort of explanation. He wasn't even a little prepared for the explanation when he found it, the realization hit him like a truck.

"Sorry about the way this happened. I've been wanting to talk to you for months, but just wasn't sure how to approach you. Would you like to have a drink with me at the party tonight? I teach advanced lit down the hall. -T.S."

Yes. Yes he would.


End file.
